Here’s why horses get kicked, how to treat kick injuries, and tips on preventing them.

Horses are naturally at risk of being kicked by another horse. Whether it’s simply play, a warning signal to demonstrate herd status, or a defense mechanism over food, kicking is a natural equine behavior. But the force behind a 1,000-plus-pound horse’s kick can pack some serious punch and potentially cause a great deal of damage.

“This is why so many higher-end show horses live in a stall and are turned out in a private paddock,” says Beau Whitaker, DVM, CERP, an equine rehabilitation and lameness specialist at Brazos Valley Equine Hospitals’ Salado, Texas, branch.

Whitaker adds that he sees as many injuries on the horses doing the kicking as those getting kicked. In these cases, typically, stalled horses kick the walls or a metal gate. “We often see fractured splint bones from kicking and horses that have capped hocks.”

Adam D’Agostino, Director of Equestrian/Head Western Coach at Alfred University, in New York, even had a mare sustain a nondisplaced radial fracture when she kicked another horse.It was clear the mare had sustained a fracture, and that meant calling the vet out to the farm right away, he says.

Not all kicks result in a fracture, of course, and you might not witness the injuring kick occur. Each case is treated individually based on the injury severity and location.

“Typically, conservative care and pain management is sufficient to heal most kick injuries,” says Matthew Davis, DVM, who has a special interest in lameness and chiropractic and owns Davis Equine LLC, in Adrian, Michigan. “While it is horse-specific , you want to give horses enough pain relief to be comfortable and to keep them calm when stalled for recovery, so they don’t put themselves at risk for a (more severe) injury.”

How Can I Tell if My Horse Was Kicked?

Sometimes it’s obvious a horse has been kicked because, like D’Agostino, you saw the altercation, or there is hoofprint on the horse’s skin. A laceration, open wound, or a hematoma or other swelling is also a sign a horse might have been kicked, says Whitaker.

“Local swelling from the fluids that collect in the area where the horse is kicked is very common,” says Whitaker. “I once saw a horse with a hematoma the size of a basketball